DOMINICAN MUSEUM OF St. SABINA AT THE AVENTINE

MUSEO DOMENICANO DI S. SABINA ALL'AVENTINO
Piazza Pietro d'Illiria

Opened to the public in 2010 in the premises of the dormitory of the medieval CONVENT OF St. SABINA

34 works dating from various historical periods, from the thirteenth to the nineteenth century

AMONG THE MASTERPIECES:

Sculpture on capital of a column "St. Dominic or young friar" maybe by Arnolfo di Cambio (about 1245/1302)

"The piece has been damaged due to prolonged outdoor exposure, as evidenced by the partially leached surface, especially of the nose. Indeed, it was found, presumably in the nineteenth century, among the remains of other artifacts accumulated in the thirteenth century convent garden. It was moved in the early twentieth century in the sacristy of the church, (...) it was transferred after the Second World War in the area above the atrium; badly fixed on a capital it was later moved tothe cloister and later in the Dominican Museum where it is now. Stylistic features link the artifact to the art Arnolfo; for its quality, the fragment was considered in 1977 by Valentino Martinelli a work by the master himself. The Arnolfo connection is also in the special relationship established between sculpture and architecture" (website Sheets and Words of Art - www.foglidarte.it/index.php/luoghi-mostre-eventi/266-il-museo-di-santa-sabina-a-roma)

Tempera on wood "St. Vincent Ferrer and the client" about 1488/89 by Antonio Aquili aka Antoniozzo Romano (about 1435-40/1508)

"The style of the painting anchor it to Antoniazzo's period of greater adherence to Melozzo, before the influence of Umbrian painting: the influence of Melozzo is evident in the monumentality of the figure of the saint and in his face, described in great realistic detail with incipient wrinkles and thin white threads in his hair (...), evoking the superb portraiture components in the fresco of Sixtus IV and Platina in the Vatican Library. The hand too, gripping the book with thin highlighted veins, is a piece of acute realistic investigation, inspired by the Flemish influence transmitted to the Roman artist by the painter from Forlì. The austere client (...) is 'an authentic piece of painting of reality' (Paolucci) and one of the most vital and genuine evidence of Roman portraiture the fifteenth century. (...) It is one of the highest pinnacle achieved by Antoniozzo's art" (Anna Cavallaro)

Painting on board "Miracle of the Crucifix of St. Catherine de' Ricci" maybe by Salvatore Monosilio (active from 1744/d. 1776)

Superb "Madonna of the Rosary with St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena" by G.B. Salvi aka Sassoferrato (1609/85)

Sculptural group in cornel wood painted "Madonna and Child" by an anonymous Nordic artist

Near the church there is an opening known as the small window of S. Domenico from which, according to tradition, the brothers used to watch the saint while praying in church

BASILICA OF St. SABINA AT THE AVENTINE HILL

BASILICA S. SABINA

Piazza Pietro d'Illiria

Begun by Peter of Illyria in 425 under Pope Celestine I (422/432) on a Titulus Sabinae maybe built in the house of a matron of the same name of the unlikely Umbrian saint martyr under Hadrian

It is the most perfect type of Christian basilica of the fifth century

Completed by Sixtus III (432/440)

Restored by Leo III (795/816)

Enriched by Eugene II (824/827)

RESTORATIONS: 1441, 1481, 1587 Domenico Fontana (1543/1607) on behalf of Pope Sixtus V Peretti (1585/90), 1643 Francesco Borromini (1599/1667), 1914/19 and 1936/37 Antonio Muñoz (1884/1960) who brought it to its original form by removing Fontana's overlays

In the SQUARE mask of St. Sabina" moved here in 1937 from the Roman Forum where it used to stand over the enormous granite basin now in front of the Palazzo del Quirinale

St. Dominic de Guzmán (1170/1221) lived and worked here

In the cloister there is a tree of sweet oranges, which according to tradition, St. Dominic brought from Spain. It is visible from the church through a hole in the wall, protected by glass, in front of the wooden portal. It is considered a miracolous tree because it has continued to bear fruits through other trees born from the original

Legend has it that the five candied oranges donated by St. Catherine to Pope Urban VI (1378/89) in 1379, had been taken by the saint from this plant

To the left of the front door there is a "Round black stone on a spiral column": this is called Lapis Diaboli, i.e., devil stone, because according to legend it was thrown by the devil against St. Dominic in prayer but it hit and shattered a marble slab covering the bones of several martyrs

In fact, the marble slab was broken by Domenico Fontana during the 1587 restoration to move the burial place of the martyrs. He threw away the pieces, later recovered and put back together, and now visible in the middle of the choir

ATRIUM

Portal frame with classical marble frame and sensational "Cypress wood doors" about 450:

Twenty-eight frames in relief (ten were lost) restored in 1836 with parallelism between Moses (the Law) and Christ (the Gospel). The "Crucifixion" with open eyes and without a halo is one of the first visual representations of the Crucifixion existing in the world

In the panel with the "Passage of the Red Sea" the restorer replaced the face of the pharaoh who drowned with that of Napoleon

COUNTER FAÇADE

Only remnant of the mosaics dating back to about 435 with the "Metric inscription" written using the beautiful monumental Philocalian capital font mentioning the Council of Ephesus in 431 maybe by Paulinus of Nola, flanked by two female figures representing the "Ecclesia ex Gentibus" (church of the Gentiles, not Jewish) and the "Ecclesia ex Circumcisione" (church of the Jewish)

The Philocalian capital font was devised by the calligrapher Furius Dyonisius Philocalus also author of the oldest Roman calendar of the Church, the Roman Chronograph of 354

TWENTY-FOUR MARBLE COLUMNS maybe from the nearby TEMPLE OF JUNO REGINA

On top and to the sides of the arches most precious "Frieze in opus sectile (inlaid marble)" fifth or sixth century

In the FLOOR "Tombstone of Brother Muñoz Zamora" who died in 1300

RIGHT NAVE

"Pillar" of the pre-existing building embedded in the wall 

CHAPEL OF St. HYACINTH

Vault "Triumph of St. Hyacinth" and walls "Stories of St. Hyacinth" Federico Zuccari (about 1542/1609)

On the altar "Virgin and St. Hyacinth" 1600 Lavinia Fontana (1552/1614)

FURTHER ON, IN THE RIGHT NAVE

"Tomb of Cardinal Auxia" 1484 by an artist of the school of Andrea Bregno (1418/1503)

PRESBYTERY

APSE

"Christ on the mountain surrounded by the apostles" 1560 by Taddeo Zuccari (1529/66), restored in 1836 by Vincenzo Camuccini (1771/1844). It repeats the theme of the lost ancient mosaic

LEFT NAVE

CHAPEL D'ELCI or CHAPEL OF St. CATHERINE

1671 G.B. Contini (1641/1723)

On the altar copy of "Madonna of the Rosary with St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena" 1643 by G.B. Salvi aka Sassoferrato (1609/85) now in the Dominican Museum

In the pendentives "Stories of St. Catherine" and in the vault "Triumph of St. Catherine" by Giovanni Odazzi (1663/1731)

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS

In the area north of the church next to the garden remains have been found in cappellaccio stone of the SERVIAN WALLS of the half of the sixth century BC above which tufa stone boulders of Grotta Oscura were stacked when the walls were rebuilt in 378 BC

Both types of material are visible here and are archaeological evidence that can be attached to the written sources describing Rome in the sixth century BC as a huge city with a wall of 11 km (6.8 miles). The walls included an area of 4.26 km ² (1.6 square mile)